


Sharp Enough to Cut

by hiddencait



Series: Assorted Tumblr Prompt Ficlets [5]
Category: Black Sails
Genre: F/M, Gen, Pre-ship, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-09
Updated: 2016-09-09
Packaged: 2018-08-14 02:00:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7994527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hiddencait/pseuds/hiddencait
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He wasn’t teaching her to fight: he was teaching her to <i>win</i>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sharp Enough to Cut

**Author's Note:**

  * For [seren_ccd](https://archiveofourown.org/users/seren_ccd/gifts).



> So Seren prompted this: "Abigail/Billy - he teaches her self-defense. Black Sails era or modern!AU You know I love a good height difference : )" and you know I planned a shippy AsheBones fic initially.
> 
> This... is not at all that fic. Hardly shippy unless you squint, and fluffy it decidedly is not. Hopefully it still appeals - I guess my bloodthirsty Abigail decided to stop playing nice for this one.

The tiny knife looked nothing but foolish in his big hands, but the slim size was perfectly weighted to keep the strain off the delicate wrists and fingers of his pupil. Billy’d noticed those hands were more calloused than when last he’d seen them, more than a year ago, wrapped about a quill as she busily penned away in her journal.

The road that brought Abigail back to Nassau could not have been a kind one. Billy guessed it was no less than a miracle she’d made it this far unmolested, just as it had been a miracle she survived in the hands of Ned Lowe, or worse yet, the complete destruction of Charles Town. Billy wasn’t one for faith any more, not for long years, but if anyone deserved an angel watching their footsteps, he’d guess she’d be it.

She might need more than an angel to live in Nassau, though. Thus the knife: one he’d scoured the maroon stores, Nassau’s market, and three prize ships in order to find – a blade strong enough for defense, but small enough she could keep it hidden about her person, either in a wrist guard beneath her sleeves or tucked behind her belt.

Some of the men had scoffed, saying the miniscule blade wouldn’t scare off a child let alone a man, but that was the point: it wasn’t there to _scare_ an attacker.

That knife was only meant to be revealed when someone forced themselves close enough to Abigail for her to use it.

He wasn’t teaching her to fight: he was teaching her to _win._

To win brutally and efficiently with carefully drilled points of violent, ruthless attack: the gut, the thigh, the throat if the bloke was short enough, the eyes if and only if she could be sure to keep hold of the knife so she could strike again and again and again.

Billy wanted to be sure that if someone laid a hand on Abigail, she’d make sure they didn’t do it more than once, or even to anyone else ever again.

Ben had thought she’d balk at the violence, that she’d shy away from blood like the sheltered society child she still looked to be in certain lights and certain company. But Billy knew better. He thought Flint likely knew better too, though her erstwhile guardian never said a word in condemnation or applause at Billy’s bloody tutelage. That silence and a single nod were as near as Flint usually came to approval anyway.

No, Abigail hadn’t questioned the things Billy taught her. Not once. Not for a moment. She just soaked in the lessons, storing the knowledge behind those dark eyes like treasure behind a lock. There was a steel to her, Billy thought, and a bloodthirstiness he recognized all too well.

He wished he didn’t. Wished she’d been able to grow up as cherished as a woman like her deserved to be. That she’d never seen the bloodshed and horrors of Nassau and its ilk.

Wished too that she could trust she’d always have a protector by her side, be it himself or another of the crew she’d earned the respect of. But he knew better, just as Abigail did: in Nassau, the only person she could depend on, for absolute certain, was herself.

Billy would do his part to make sure she was up to the challenge.

 


End file.
